All's Fair In Love and War
by abby in training
Summary: a little something new for you guys...never done this kind before so yeah I don't own this no copyright infringement intended...i make no money of this just have fun


**A/N: So Harry and Hermione got together before she left Hogwarts for Christmas break. Kinda goes with everything in OOTP up until this point in the Ministry of Magic.**

**Harry was running through the corridors of the Hall of Prophesy, not even waiting for his classmates to catch up.**

"**Harry, just wait," Hermione, breathlessly, yelled after him.**

"_**She shouldn't be here," **_**he thought as he continued to run. **_**"I should have done something to keep her at school. I shouldn't have let her get this close to me, especially now! I will never be able to live with myself if something happens to her!"**_

**He skidded to a stop as he reached the right row. Hermione and the others had caught up and were now stopping next the him.**

"**Harry," Hermione asked, concerned by how still he had become. "Harry, are you-"**

"**Sirius should be here," he cut her off. "They should all be here!" He looked at the row number once more. "This is it! Why aren't they here?"**

"**Harry," Neville said, fright seeping into his voice. "Harry, it has you're name on it."**

**Harry walked over to where he was standing. A glass of swirling smoke was lying in front of him, with his name on it.**

"**Harry, don't do it." His hand was frozen in midair from where he had begun to reach for it. He looked at Hermione as she walked toward him. She laid her hand on his, forcing it down to his side as she said, "Don't do it."**

**He looked dumbfounded at her. He trusted her, yes, but it had his name on it! What if this was the key to defeating Voldemort.**

"**What if this is the weapon Dumbledore was talking about? What if this can tell me how to defeat Voldemort?"**

"**What if it's a trap? What if it's rigged to cast a stun on you when you touch it? He could be trying something like that."**

**But he had to know. He grabbed the orb turning it around and around when suddenly Death Eaters were all around him. He couldn't see anything but black robes. Almost as soon as the appeared, they were gone!**

**He looked around to find himself alone. Not even his friends were there anymore. Even Hermione, who had been with him through everything, was gone.**

"**You're all alone," Voldemort's disembodied voice rang through the emptiness. "No one is there to help you. Not even you're precious Mudblood will stand by you this time."**

**Harry suddenly heard Hermione's voice, but it was in his head. He was remembering what Hermione had said right before they left the school.**

"_**Harry, I would never leave you. I love you and I promise that I will be standing right there with you, even if it's just in mind or spirit or in your heart. I might not always be able to physically stand by you, but I will always be there, in your heart as long as you want me."**_

**Harry put his hand to his heart and calmly replied, "No, no one is here standing beside me, but she will always be with me."**

**He started running toward the door, suddenly finding everyone in the hall outside the prophecy room, but he only found four faces looking back at him. Hermione wasn't with them. He clenched his fists, as his whole body started to shake.**

**He ran back into the room with all the doors and randomly ran through one. Empty.**

**He turned back and found Ron, Ginny, Luna, and Neville looking at him, obviously waiting for instructions.**

"**Ron, Luna, Ginny. You three stay together and search through all these rooms. Neville and I will go back to that other hall way and check those doors. Leave an X on the doors to the rooms you've already checked and hurry! We have to find her now."**

**Harry run to the next hall with Neville at his heels. He began ripping doors open, searching for any sign of where they might have gone. Neville had just disappeared through a door way when something caught Harry's eye. A black piece of cloth, soaked with blood, was caught in the doorway of the last room in the hall. He immediately recognized it as part of the Death Eaters cloak and yelled for the others to come.**

**It was mere seconds before the group of five teenagers were bursting through the door. It was a large, empty room with two doors. One leading to the left and another leading to the right.**

"**No matter what you do, you can't save her," Voldemort's voice said. It sounded like it was coming from the door to the right.**

"**Okay, the four of you check the left door and I'll check the right," Harry barked out.**

"**No way." Harry couldn't believe Ron was doing this. Ron hadn't said a word the whole time and he chooses now to speak up!**

"**Harry, you need back up too," he continued. "Neville, you go with the girls and check the left door. Harry, we'll go through the right."**

**Before he could object, Neville and the girls were gone and Ron was pulling him through the opposite door.**

**This new room was just as big as the room they had just come through, but there were boulders and an archway in this room. Then Harry heard something that sounded like voices and suddenly the space in between the arch's sides seemed to move, like wind blowing over a veil, and in away it was just that.**

**Harry saw Voldemort standing by the archway, his hand held out toward Harry with a brown curl lying in the palm of his hand. Voldemort smirked at Harry's distraught look. "It's too late for her," he sneered. "You're too late."**

**Just as before, a group of Death Eaters appeared silently, but this time he also heard the pops of appraperations. The entire Order was now standing by Ron and him, battling the dark ominous cloaks that were the Death Eaters.**

**Harry barely noticed all the spells and curses flying by him as he shoved his way through the crowd to the man he despised the most. He had destroyed everything dear to Harry, everything that made Harry happy, and now Harry was ready to destroy him.**

**He could see Voldemort still standing by the archway, still holding that lock of Hermione's hair. He took aim and uttered the two words he thought he would never have the strength to say.**

"**Avada Kadavra."**

**With a shriek of pain, Voldemort was no longer. Black fog began to fill the room as Voldemort sunk to the ground. Everything was quiet except for the screams emitting from the evil wizard. The Order quickly took advantage of the distraction, then it was over. No more Voldemort, no more Death Eaters, and more importantly to Harry, no more Hermione.**

**It was still as death when Neville rushed in calling for Harry to come quickly. Harry wasn't sure how, but he stood and followed Neville into the room he had disappeared into before mere…Moments, hours, days? Harry wasn't sure which it was.**

**All hope he had sank when he saw Hermione, his Hermione, lying still on the floor. Ginny had pulled Hermione's head onto her lap and Luna was doing who knows what with her wand in the corner.**

**Harry kneeled down to the only person who had never left him, no matter how bad it was, and began to cry. Even after he saw Voldemort holding some of her hair, he still hoped it wasn't true, that Hermione was still alive. A team of mediwizards pushed their way into the room, with a gurney. Harry would have protested, but he was to shocked.**

"_**She knows how to take care of herself,"**_** he would repeat over and over in his head.**_** "How could this happen? It's my fault. I should have found a way to keep her at Hogwarts! She would have been safe there! It's all my fault that she's dead."**_

"**Mr. Potter," the head mediwizard said, braking Harry out of his self-blaming. "We have to go. You need to be check over and so does the girl." He laid his hand next to Hermione's head.**

"**Checked over?"**

"**Yes, sir. You seem to have sustained some nasty wounds and we have to make sure there isn't internal damage."**

"**No, check over Her-Hermione," he asked**

"**Especially her. She seems to have a bad concussion and the sooner we get her back the sooner she might wake up."**

"**Yo-you mean sh-she's alive," he voice cracked on the last word.**

"**Yes, she is. She actually is more stable then expected, but we need to get her to Mungo as soon as possible."**

**But Harry didn't hear the last sentence. In fact he heard nothing but she was alive.**

"_**She's alive."**_

"**Mr. Potter." the mediwizard once again snapped Harry out of his thoughts.**

"**Of course," he replied. "We need to go now!"**

**He figured he was being appraperated somewhere, but he wasn't sure until he had landed on the critical care ward of St. Mungo. He was running along with Hermione's gurney when a nurse suddenly stopped him.**

"**Sir, your going to have to come with me to get these wounds checked out."**

"**But I have to stay with Hermione," he yelled back. "I can't leave her!"**

"**I'm sorry, sir, but you have to be checked over yourself." She lead him into a room and closed the door. She cast a spell for a full-body x-ray then set to cleaning and bandaging his wounds. As soon as the nurse let him leave, he was running for the door they had wheeled Hermione through. He passed the room Ron was being check over in. Then Ginny's. Then Neville's. Then Luna's. And finally he reached the room where Hermione's unconscious body lay.**

**He pulled a chair up to the bed as close as possible and sat down. He held her hand, trying to convince her to come back to him.**

"**Hermione, I need you," he often said. "I can't live without you. You can't leave me. I never should have let you come. If I had just stopped you, we would be back at Hogwarts having a victory party. Hermione, please come back. I love you."**

**Sirius walked in the room during one of those conversations with Hermione. He laid a hand on Harry's shoulder and assured him, "Don't worry. She'll come back. It's not your fault. Trust me, she won't leave you, and I can tell you now that she loves you too and doesn't want you to be blaming yourself."**

"**I know she loves me, but how can this not be my fault! I should have left her at Hogwarts!"**

"**And she would have resented that, and you know that."**

"**Sirius, how can you just know that she'll come out of this?" Harry looked up into his godfather's eyes and could tell that what he said was true.**

"**Because she's strong and because she has you."**

**A week went by, but it felt like an eternity to him. People came and went, all reassuring him, but none of them felt as true as Sirius's reassurance. Even the minister came to reassure him, and also to tell him the six of them would no long have to worry about the underage restriction, but even though Voldemort was gone, Harry would be required to stay with his aunt and uncle over the summer. **

**All, but Sirius, insisted that he leave, at least to eat or shower, but refused every time. As a matter of fact, Sirius brought his meals up to him, everyday. Harry never left. He slept there, in that chair, beside her bed. Everyday, he would hope it would be the day she woke up, and everyday it didn't happen. Until now.**

**Harry was sitting in his chair holding Hermione's hand as usually. It was just like every other day, nothing special or different. It was late, really late when Harry felt a bit of pressure on his hand.**

"**Mione," he asked, hoping for her to answer. He thought he imagined it when she never responded. He was slipping back into his self-blame when he felt the pressure again.**

"**Hermione, please answer me." Her eyes fluttered open.**

"**Hey, Harry," she sounded weak, but at least she was speaking. Before Harry realized it, she was struggling out of her bed. He stood up and said, "Hermione, it's okay. Just lay back-"**

**Her legs gave out and she fell, but Harry caught her before she realized she was falling. She just stood there, holding onto Harry.**

"**Hermione you should lay back down," he said. "I'll explain it to you, I promise if you will lay back down."**

"**Okay," she said. He helped her back on to the bed, being as gentle as possible. "Well, I'm back in bed as promised, you're turn," she said, almost like this was a norm, and Harry didn't like that, but he wouldn't deny her the knowledge she deserved to know.**

**He explained how all the Death Eaters had come then he was alone, how they all met back up and how they came to the room with the archway and Voldemort.**

"**I can't believe this," she breathed once he was done. She looked up at him with some much raw emotion, tears already springing up in her eyes. "I can't believe I wasn't there. I should have been there! I should have taken care of myself! I should have been there with you, Harry."**

"**What are you talking about? I'm the one to blame. I shouldn't have let you out of my sight. In fact, I should have made you stay at school, where you would be safe. I shouldn't have let you get close to me at all, especially not this close. I shouldn't have been so selfish as to ask you to be my girlfriend. I shouldn't have even been friends with you." His eyes started to well up as well. "I've put you into so much danger. I shouldn't have let things go this far! I-"**

**She pressed her lips to his. Tears spilling onto her checks and meeting at their lips. Harry backed away and held her face between his hand, gently brushing her tears away.**

"**It's the past," she said. "There's no need for us to try to blame ourselves. All that really matters is that everyone is alright and that you're free from Voldemort. That's all that I really care about."**

"**All I care about is you being safe."**

"**And I am now. Because of you," she insisted. "And I won't let you keep blaming yourself."**

"**Mione?"**

"**Yeah."**

"**Why?"**

"**Why what," she asked confused.**

"**Why aren't you blaming me?"**

"**Because it's not you're fault."**

"**Hermione, you should be terrified to be around me," he said sadly, but he knew it was true. "No matter what happens, danger seems to always come."**

"**But, you make me feel safe. Anytime I can't find you or when you aren't with me, I'm scared, but when you're with me nothing can touch me."**

"**This isn't right. You should be scared right now, just with me sitting next to you."**

"**But I'm not. Harry, I don't wanna talk about this right now. There isn't even anything to talk about on that subject."**

"**Okay. How do you feel," he asked.**

"**A little sore."**

**He stood up and said, "I'll go get a nurse for you." But she caught his hand causing him to turn around.**

**She shook her head. "Please, don't go. I want you to stay."**

**He smiled at her and agreed. When he sat back down she asked him, "Do my parents know?"**

**He shook his head.**

"**Good, I don't want them to worry."**

"**Hermione, you were unconscious! As of an hour ago you hadn't moved in a week. They need to know. They have reason to worry."**

"**Hermione," a new voice said, entering the room. Harry turned around to see both Mr. and Mrs. Granger standing in the doorway.**

"**I'll leave the three of you alone," Harry said.**

**Mr. Granger saw the look on his baby girl's face and quickly added, "No that's alright, Harry. You should stay." Harry looked at Hermione and saw her mouth to him "please." He sat back down in his chair and took her hand.**

**The Grangers came into the room and pulled up two chairs to the other side of their daughter's bed.**

"**Hermione," Mrs. Granger whispered, sounding like she was about to cry. "Sweetie, what happened to you?"**

"**It was no big deal."**

"**Hermione," Harry cut in. "They need to know. They have just as much of a right to know as you did. Tell them."**

**She looked back at her parents and truthfully said, "I don't know. Harry told me about it and I don't really remember all the details he said."**

**Harry explained once again what happened a little over a week ago. He wasn't sure if he should apologize or leave so he just did both.**

"**I'm really sorry," he said, standing up and walking toward the door. "I shouldn't have let this go so far. I'll just go." Then he stepped over the threshold and walked toward the main entrance.**

**He was almost to the door Hermione had been wheeled through a week ago when he heard a weak call of his name. He saw Hermione running towards him and she threw her arms around him. He just held her as she cried and he whispered, "Everything's alright, Baby. It's ok, now. You're safe."**

"**Please, don't leave me, Harry. I need you. I can't live without you. I love you. Please, don't go."**

"**Mione." He pulled back just enough to look into her eyes. "As long as you want me, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere." He kissed the top of her head and pulled her back to him.**

**They stood there for who knows how long when Harry felt her shiver. He let go of her just to wrap an arm around her waist as support and lead her back to her room. Her parents were still sitting in the same place as before.**

**Once he helped her into her bed, her dad said, "Harry, there is nothing for you to apologize for. You saved our little girl and we can't thank you enough for that."**

"**Harry, Hermione told us how you feel responsible for what happened," Mrs. Granger added in. "It isn't your fault. You kept her safe and we can't do anything to repay your kindness. Honestly, you're part of the family now."**

"**Mrs. Granger, you have no idea what it feels like to hear you say all of that, but I don't deserve any of it. I don't deserve to be called part of you're family. There is nothing to be repaid. No thanks should be given to me. I don't deserve Hermione even as an enemy much less my girlfriend. I deserve all the blame in the world and I have everything to apologize for."**

"**Harry, you're too humble," Mr. Granger said. He took his wife's hand leading her toward the door. "We'll go get some coffee. It is almost four in the morning." Then they were gone down the hall.**

"**Harry, you already have them in love with you, you know," Hermione said trying to light everything up.**

"**Babe, I meant every word I said."**

"**Please, don't start that, Harry. I don't deserve you. I'm still in shock that you haven't dumped me yet." Suddenly she blushed, realizing what she just said and knowing he was never suppose to hear that.**

"**You thought I would dump you? Hermione, I think they need to recheck you're head if you think that."**

"**I thought that before all of this. You are so good to me and what do I do? I leave you on your own to face the most evil wizard to ever exist! That's what I do. I am such a terrible girlfriend," she sighed. She hung her head in shame at what she had done. It seemed to sound way worse out loud than in her head.**

**He lifted her chin, making her look at him. "How about we both drop it and just be thankful to have found each other?"**

**She smiled and grabbed his hand, pressing it against her cheek. "Okay, Baby."**

"**Miss Granger," a mediwitch asked. "You can leave now if you would like, just rest up the next few days. Lots of sleep."**

**Hermione turned back to Harry smiling.**

"**I can go home," she squealed, throwing her arms around his neck. He held her to him, never wanting to let go. "Harry, will you come back with us for a few days? Please?"**

"**Hermione, I really can't impose."**

**The deep voice of Hermione's dad rang through the room. "Oh, yes, you can. Besides, we don't want Hermione to be by herself while we go to work."**

"**Ok, that sounds great," Harry replied.**

**Hermione was sent straight to her room to rest, but she wasn't about to sleep. So she and Harry sat in her room talking about everything. Harry was given the guest room right by hers.**

**The next morning, right after Hermione's parents left, there was someone knocking at the door. Of course, Hermione was still order to stay in bed, so Harry opened the door to find a boy about his age standing there.**

"**Who are you," the boy asked.**

"**I'm Harry. Who are you?"**

"**Zack. Why are you here?"**

"**Harry, who was at the-" Hermione stopped dead in her tracks at the top of the stairs. She took the next few steps down and Harry took the next few up to help steady her as she came down. "What are you doing here, Zack?"**

"**I heard you were back early from that school of yours. What happened to you," he asked, eyeing Harry, like he did this to her. He didn't need a glare to make him feel guilty.**

"**Oh , I tripped going up some stairs about a week ago. Bad concussion but I'll live."**

"**What's he doing here," Zack asked kind of disgusted.**

"**Oh, Harry is staying with us. He's here to help me while my parents are at work."**

"**So how do you know him," he continued with his quizzing.**

"**He goes to my school, you see."**

"**So he's just a school mate, nothing else?" Harry didn't like where this was going.**

"**Zack, stop this. I will not go out with you!"**

"**So he is more than just a school mate?"**

"**Yes, as a matter of fact, he is," she shot back. "He is way more than just a school mate. He's my boyfriend."**

"**You won't give me a shot, but you'll go out with that loser!"**

"**Harry is not a loser! And yes, Harry is my boyfriend, and no, I will not give you a shot. Now I suggest you get out of here now!"**

"**I'm not leave! You'll have to make me."**

"**Zack, I think you should leave," Harry interrupted. "Hermione asked you to leave and if you don't **_**I'll **_**make you."**

"**Yeah right! I'd love to see you try! You going to call up your daddy to help you?"**

**Hermione felt Harry tensing and knew she had to intervene before he crushed Zack into a million pieces. "Zack, get out now or I call the cops again!"**

"**Wait, again," Harry asked. "You've already called the cops on him once and he still keeps coming around?"**

"**Yeah, I'll explain later, Baby. But as for you," she yelled, point her finger at Zack. "Get out now!"**

"**Uh, no. Not while this guy has obviously done something to you," Zack yelled back. That made her so mad that she pushed Harry's arm, that was keeping her from falling, back, marched up to Zack, and shoved him out the door. She slammed it in his face and locked the dead bolt.**

**As soon as her task was done, she could feel herself begin to falling, but two strong arms caught her before she knew it. Harry swept her up effortlessly and carried her up the stair as her adrenaline rush drained the last of her energy. She felt her eyes getting heavier with each step Harry took. By the time he laid her on her bed she was fighting with everything she had to keep just her eyes open.**

"**Hermione, go to sleep. I'll be right here when you wake up, I promise. You can tell me who the creep is then," knowing exactly why she was fighting exhaustion.**

**She mumbled an okay as she drifted back to sleep. Harry kissed her forehead and sat down on the side of her bed.**

**Hermione woke up to find Harry looking at the pictures on her desk. He was smiling.**

"_**He deserves to smile like that all the time,"**_** she thought.**

**He picked up a frame, but she couldn't tell which picture it was. All she knew was that it look still, like a muggle photo.**

"**This is my favorite," he said, as if she had been awake the entire time he was looking around her room. He handed it to her, and she saw it was one her mum had taken over the Christmas break.**

**She was sitting on the porch, her back leaning against the railings and her knees bent toward her chest with a book in her lap. There was a little smile on her face and Crookshanks was asleep at her feet.**

"**I remember this," she said. "Scared the living daylights out of me. I was really zoned out reading and suddenly I saw a flash. My mum surprised me. I didn't even know she was there."**

"**You look so happy."**

"**Yeah, I had just gotten that letter from you a few hours before along with my necklace," she said, fingering the locket around her neck. Harry looked back at the picture, smiling again.**

"**Keep it," she said.**

"**What?"**

"**Keep it. We have another copy. I want you to have it."**

**Harry walked back to her and sat on the side of it. He leaned over and gave he a peek on the lips.**

"**Thank you, Mione. Are you hungry?"**

**She looked at the time, realizing it was time for lunch. "Yeah," she replied. "Why don't we order pizza?"**

"**Sound fine to me." He ran down stair to phone in the order then ran back to Hermione.**

"**So, who is the Zack guy?"**

**Hermione sighed then explained, "I use to go to school with him. He was the only person that would talk to me, and I thought that he was just being a friend. Then I went off to Hogwarts. I would come home every break to find a ton of roses and stuff that he had ask my mum to give me.**

"**He's even had my mum send letters to me. I've tried to get a restraining order, but since I don't go to school here, I can't get one. They said that since I was almost always hundreds of miles away that he can't be that much of a threat."**

"**You said that you've called the cops on him before though?"**

"**Yeah, he comes to the house when my parents are at work. I would answer and then he would get all obsessive about who I might be getting "too friendly with." I would tell him to leave and if he refused, I called the cops."**

"**And they just let it go," he asked astonished.**

"**They just thought it was a boy with a crush. Nothing to worry about."**

"**It seems like a big thing to worry about to me."**

**She smiled up at him. "Well, now I have you to protect me, Luv."**

"**But what if he comes back when I'm not here, Baby?"**

"**Then I'll be calling you instead of the cops." **

**He was about to protest when the door bell rang. This time, he looked out the window first, and saw it was the pizza man. He paid the man for their food then rushed back up to Hermione.**

"**Hermione," he asked after she finished up. "What do you remember from that night?"**

**She looked down at her hands, worried that he might be mad about her not remembering much. He took her hands, so she looked back up at him.**

"**It's ok if you don't remember anything. I just wanted to know," he added in.**

"**Ok," she sighed. "I remember seeing a bunch of Death Eaters, then they were shoving me through a hall. I tried kicking, punching, screaming, everything. I heard some of them groan, but they didn't stop. Then I heard something rip then I started to slip. I think I stepped on one of their cloaks or something. Next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital."**

**She thought the blank look on her face meant that he was disappointed by her not remembering more. She quickly threw in, "I'm so sorry, Harry. I should remember more. I'm really-mhpp"**

**She was quickly silenced by his kiss. He whispered against her lips, "You were perfect. Nothing for you to apologize for, Baby."**

**She leaned forward, her forehead pressing against his. She closed her eyes and whispered, "Are you sure?"**

"**Yeah, I'm sure," he told her. "You should probably rest some more."**

"**Harry, I'm fine. Really. Why don't we go down stairs and watch a movie?"**

"**Okay, come on." He wrapped his arm around her waist and led her back to the living room. He sat her on the couch and asked her what she wanted to watch.**

"**You pick," she insisted.**

"**Okay then." He wasn't sure what the movie was about but he picked a movie that seemed pretty action-packed. Hermione curled up next to him laying her head on his chest.**

**The movie was interesting, but the young woman he was holding was even more captivating. The movie ended, and the credits rolled. Neither movie off the couch.**

"**Hermione?"**

"**Yeah, Harry?"**

"**I love you."**

"**I love you, too."**

**DE END**


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